A device for conveying insulating glass panes has been known from Austrian Patent 384,596 or German Patent 3,038,425 and from German Patent 4,029,669. These conventional devices have proven themselves suitable for transporting insulating glass panes in the zone of sealing machines, particularly for the transport of insulating glass panes during and after sealing.
Besides insulating glass panes wherein the glass plates are of equal size so that the outer rims of the glass plates lie in joint planes which are perpendicular to the flat extension of the insulating glass pane, there are also insulating glass panes wherein the glass plates are of differing size. Thus, there are insulating glass panes wherein one of the glass plates protrudes at least along one rim of the insulating glass pane beyond the other glass plate. In this case, the spacer frame is arranged so that it follows substantially the contour of the smaller glass plate. Such insulating glass panes (also called "staggered elements") cannot be transported by means of the conventional devices. For this reason, such insulating glass panes have thus far been sealed manually while in a horizontal position because the transporting of insulating glass panes fashioned as staggered elements is impossible, or not easily possible, with the known vertical conveyors during and after the sealing step.